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The MV Karl ferry crosses San Pablo Bay in Vallejo. The boat is named for San Francisco\u2019s favorite weather feature: Karl the Fog.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noah Berger\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Senior lead deckhand Kakou Khoudiou throws a line while preparing for a trip aboard the MV Karl ferry.<\/p>\n
Noah Berger\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Willie Mays gets ready to cut the cake during a party at the San Francisco Giants player\u2019s San Francisco home in 1963.<\/p>\n
John McBride \/ The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Biologist Jessica Witherly uses a safety shield as biologist Emma Kocina feeds Claude the albino alligator at the California Academy of Sciences in\u00a02023.<\/p>\n
Jessica Christian\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Naming a ferry, it turns out, is a lot like owning a boat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The process sounds fun over beers, but at some point you\u2019ll be scraping barnacles off the bottom, poring over a byzantine owners manual and fretting about how much your investment might depreciate in value. <\/p>\n
Last month, we asked for your help to name five new electric San Francisco Bay Ferry vessels<\/a> joining the fleet over the next few years. You crushed the assignment. Readers submitted more than 1,500 names, which we labored mightily to narrow down to a short list of finalists. (The barnacles in the above metaphor are the 50-plus suggestions for some variation of \u201cBoaty McBoatface.\u201d It\u2019s. Been. Done<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The 27 names that made the cut reflect the beauty, diversity and creativity of the Bay Area. From \u201cHumphrey\u201d to \u201cHyphy\u201d to \u201cRosie\u201d to \u201cRide the Lightning\u201d (punctuate that last one with a Kirk Hammett guitar solo<\/a>), the finalists nod to our history, culture, environment and local celebrities \u2014 of the human and cetacean variety.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The next step is voting for your favorites in the poll released today<\/a>. Choose carefully: Some San Francisco Bay Ferry vessels remain on the water for more than 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n What\u2019s in the running? We watched Chronicle readers suggest great names, from the thoughtful (\u201cChrysopylae,\u201d Greek for golden gate) to the delicious (\u201cCioppino,\u201d \u201cSourdough\u201d and \u201cDungeness\u201d \u2026 and how many of you sent your nominations right before lunch?).<\/p>\n Kirk\u00a0Hammett solos and bassist Jason Newsted raises a hand as Metallica headlines a Day on the Green at the Oakland Coliseum in 1991.<\/p>\n Ron Riesterer\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n We have a deep-cut reference to the Alfred Hitchcock movie \u201cVertigo\u201d (\u201cCarlotta\u201d), celebrations of native flora and fauna (\u201cDahlia,\u201d \u201cPoppy\u201d and \u201cMission Blue\u201d for the butterfly<\/a>), and so many nods to East Bay pride that we held a pre-voting poll<\/a> to narrow them down. Get hella hyphy in the voting; both words could be painted on the side of our public transit. (The last ferry boat was named after Karl the Fog<\/a>.)<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Not that there weren\u2019t losses along the way.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cGhost Ride the Ship,\u201d \u201cBoat the Whistle,\u201d \u201cExtra Guac\u201d and \u201cBoat Milk Latte\u201d were casualties to a gauntlet that included two journalists, ferry staff and members of the board of directors and a focus group of boat captains who would have had to say, \u201cRice-a-Roamie copies on that request, thank you\u201d a few dozen times a day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n (\u201cRice-A-Roamie\u201d did not make the list. Neither did \u201cTitania,\u201d the queen of the fairies, whose name sounds too close to \u201cTitanic.\u201d)\u00a0<\/p>\n The peak of ferry naming rigor came during a discussion of different leavened bread nominees on a Zoom call with ferry officials, when my editor Sarah Feldberg said, straight faced, \u201cDutch Crunch is a more aggressive bread.\u201d The peaceful \u201cSourdough\u201d advanced to the finals instead.<\/p>\n Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia (left) and Bob Weir rehearse in preparation for a series of AIDS benefit concerts in 1989.<\/p>\n Scott Sommerdorf \/ The Chronicle 1989<\/p>\n And as sure as we are that Jerry Garcia would approve christening a boat \u201cWharf Rat,\u201d<\/a> it\u2019s understandable that ferry officials don\u2019t want one of their new multimillion-dollar vessels named after rodents associated with the plague. But we got you, Deadheads. Terrapin<\/a> is in the finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n (Fun fact: You could play the 9\/29\/1993 recording of \u201cTerrapin Station\u201d<\/a> while boarding a new electric ferry at Seaplane Lagoon in Alameda, and still have six minutes left as you depart in San Francisco.)<\/p>\n Chronicle readers also begged us to stretch the rules. Boats can\u2019t be named after people or corporations, but labor leader Dolores Huerta and recent Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu both received scores of votes. Same with \u201cFerry Garcia\u201d and \u201cFerry Rice.\u201d We had a longer debate about Emperor Norton, who has been dead for 150 years. Surely any disqualifyingly bad behavior would have come out by now? Alas, Norton is off the list.<\/p>\n Klay Thompson and his dog, Rocco,\u00a0in Berkeley in 2014.<\/p>\n Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n But readers found loopholes. Seafaring former Golden State Warrior\u00a0Klay Thompson can\u2019t have a boat named after him, but his English bulldog first mate \u201cRocco\u201d can. Finalist \u201cSay Hey\u201d is a sly tribute to San Francisco Giants legend Willie Mays, while \u201cDoubtfire\u201d conjures happy thoughts of comedian Robin Williams.<\/p>\n I was saddened that \u201cCarbon-Free Willy\u201d didn\u2019t make the final cut. And pleasantly surprised by the survival of \u201cRide the Lightning\u201d \u2014 a nod to both the Bay Area band Metallica and the boat\u2019s electric power \u2014 overcoming the downside that the album title refers to the electric chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cFrisco\u201d may be the most controversial name. (I\u2019m OK with it<\/a>.) The \u201cStar Trek IV\u201d fan service \u201cNuclear Wessel\u201d<\/a> didn\u2019t make the finalists, but San Francisco-based \u201cStarfleet\u201d is an option.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The local chapter of the Hells Angels uses \u201cFrisco\u201d on their bikes and their jackets.<\/p>\n Deanne Fitzmaurice\/The Chronicle 2004<\/p>\n By far the hardest name that we removed was \u201cClaude.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n More than a dozen people, including me<\/a>, lobbied for the name as a nod to the beloved Steinhart Aquarium albino alligator who died last year after decades in Golden Gate Park. Unfortunately, Claude is also the name of an AI chatbot that has risen in the zeitgeist recently. After brainstorming creative ways to keep it (call the ferry \u201cClaude II,\u201d and include photos of the alligator on the boat), ferry officials polled random co-workers with a word-association test and the alligator lost.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But our finalist list still feels close to perfect. Vote for the next five ferry names here<\/a>, and we\u2019ll ride the lightning (or \u201cCormorant\u201d \u2026 or \u201cPainted Lady\u201d \u2026) together in a couple of years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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